'Uncanny Avengers': Exclusive first look at the flagship title of Marvel Now!

Earlier this week, EW exclusively announced the impending arrival of the Marvel Now! initiative, which will radically alter Marvel’s lineup with a mix of new and relaunched titles. Now we’ve got a look at Uncanny Avengers, one of the new titles, written by Rick Remender and drawn by John Cassady, which focuses on a new superteam that throws together characters from the Avengers and X-Men franchises. Take a look at the cover of Uncanny Avengers. (Click on the image below to enlarge.)

Remender talked to us about Uncanny Avengers and offered some intriguing teases about the characters who will form the superteam’s initial lineup. “Captain America comes out of Avengers vs. X-Men recognizing that he didn’t do enough to help the mutants. He’s going to fix that.” That leads to the formation of a team focused explicitly on human-mutant relations. And although Uncanny Avengers has its share of heavy hitters — Captain America, Thor, and Wolverine have all starred in multiple movies that collectively grossed one katrillion dollars — Remender sounds even more excited about playing around with the team’s other characters. That’s especially true of Havok, the brother of Cyclops, who will be the team’s leader. “He is put in a very difficult situation,” says Remender. “Havok’s always been the black sheep rock-and-roller of the Summers family. He can’t do that anymore. You’re going to see Havok become one of the biggest players in the Marvel Universe.”

Uncanny Avengers will also feature the mutant Rogue, who Remender describes as “the Wolverine of the team now. Her adoptive step-mother was Mystique, so she was raised to hate the Avengers.” And there will be some interpersonal turmoil around the final member of the team: Scarlet Witch, who recently returned to the Avengers after years of being mostly in the background of the Marvel Universe. “She’s the character responsible for eradicating the mutants in the first place,” says Remender, who describes the Witch’s role in the book as a “redemption arc.”

Uncanny Avengers will hit stores in October. Readers, are you intrigued by this mash-up superteam?